GOT BLACKBERRIES? Wolftown goats go to work on brambles. Page 13
NEWS | VHS graduate dies in drowning. [5] COMMENTARY | Vote ‘yes’ for King County Parks. [6] ARTS | Gallery Cruise offers [10] plenty on Friday.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU WEAR Islander launches a thoughtful clothing line. Page 14
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2013
Vol. 58, No. 31
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
Island’s second credit union will open by year’s end By SUSAN RIEMER Staff Writer
Natalie Johnson/Staff Photo
Captain David Wilson sails the Issaquah last Friday, one of his last days on the boat before retirement.
A Vashon captain’s final sailing Longtime ferry employee recalls decades on the water By NATALIE JOHNSON Staff Writer
On Friday as Captain David Wilson prepared the Issaquah for an 8:45 a.m. sailing from Fauntleroy to Southworth, he noticed a large barge approaching from the south. “We’ll have to pass him,” Wilson said, looking at a blinking red radar screen that noted the speed and name of the barge, the Tecumseh. Ron Calhoun, who helped sail the boat that morning as the ferry’s quartermaster, piped in, explaining that Wilson, who had several options in a situation like this, would likely decide to point the ferry north toward Blake Island as he made the crossing, giving the barge space to keep moving up the East Passage. As if on cue, Wilson, 66, picked up a black phone and radioed the Tecumseh, informing its captain that the Issaquah would make a large sweep north, giving the barge plenty of berth. “See, I knew it,” Calhoun said. “That’s how long we’ve been working together.” Indeed, much of the crew of the Washington State Ferries has gotten to know Wilson well in his 40 years on the water. And on Friday, just days before Wilson, 66, was set to retire, many crew
members aboard the Issaquah said the whitehaired and soft-spoken captain would be missed. Wilson’s last day on the ferry is today. “He’s one of the best skippers I’ve ever had,” Calhoun said. Asked why he chose a career on ferries, Wilson, taking a break in the wheelhouse that morning, gestured around him at the sunny, panoramic view of Puget Sound. It’s a scene — though not always so sunny — that he has seen from 5:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., five days a week. “This is my office,” he said with a grin. Wilson, who is also a Vashon resident, knows what it’s like to go without a view. As a young man, he joined the Coast Guard and worked on an ice breaker that was based in Seattle and traveled to the Arctic and Antarctic. While he has fond memories of seeing polar bears, penguins and “horizons full of walruses,” he said, as an engineering officer, he spent most of his time below deck in the boat’s engine room. In the early 1970s, he said he walked off the icebreaker and onto a ferry in Seattle to ask if he could have a job. “I wanted to work where there was a window and a view,” he said. In four decades with the Washington State Ferries, Wilson has been on several Vashon boats and has climbed the ranks in the wheelhouse, SEE CAPTAIN, 19
Nearly three years after a community effort brought Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union to Vashon, an additional credit union will open soon. The Shelton-based Our Community Credit Union (OCCU) plans to move into the building that Bank of America will vacate in September. Bert Fisher, the president and CEO of OCCU, said he expects to open by the end of this year. He would like to begin offering some services sooner than that to assist Bank of America customers who may want to transfer their accounts. “There is a sense of urgency on our part,” he said. Norm Mathews, the owner of Thriftway and the manag-
ing partner of the Vashon East Shopping Center, approached OCCU after Bank of America announced it would be leaving the island, said Clay Gleb, one of Thriftway’s managers and, as a partner in Mathews’s company, participated in bringing OCCU to Vashon. “We felt there was still a need for another financial institution, and we felt Vashon would be better served by a small bank or credit union,” Gleb said. Mathews learned about OCCU from a fellow Thriftway owner, who has an OCCU branch in his store in Montesano, Gleb said. After meeting with Fisher and OCCU’s management and learning more about the credit union, Mathews and his team proceeded. “We came to the mutual SEE CREDIT UNION, 20
Two new art spaces roll out, another changes hands Ignition gallery closes after dispute By ELIZABETH SHEPHERD Staff Writer
Island art lovers will see some changes in Vashon’s gallery scene on Friday evening’s Gallery Cruise. This Friday, Adam Cone and Megan Hastings, owners of Snapdragon Bakery and Café, will open the Hastings Cone Gallery in a space adjacent and connected to their restaurant. The pair, who have studied art at prestigious places, including The Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia University and Cornish College for the Arts, have renovated the small space to heighten the ceiling, creating an intimate gallery where they hope to exhibit not only wall pieces but also kinetic and other types of art. “We’re finally making use of our art education, which is, of course, the reason why we cook,” Cone
joked. Cone, who was also a founding member of VALISE Gallery, said that opening a gallery has been part of his and Hastings’ long-term plan for some time. At Snapdragon, he pointed out, he and Hastings have always shown work by local artists and children. And in June, Hastings mounted a show of her father’s travel photography in the space that has now become the gallery. This Friday, an exhibition of paintings by Allison Crain Trundle will officially launch the Hastings Cone Gallery. “Sometimes, you should just jump in, and so we decided to make a go of it,” he said, adding that the scale of the gallery will make it possible for it to be a warm and welcoming place. “It’s not huge or daunting,” he said. “There can be a certain degree of frivolity.” Cone is also excited, he said, SEE GALLERIES, 17